Index

The two Folkestone schools, Folkestone Academy (FA) and the new Turner Free School are both run by the problematic Turner Schools academy trust. The decision to expand Turner Free School by 60 places to 180 has hit FA badly, with its intake falling by 31% since last year leaving it with nearly a third of its places empty. One can only speculate why Turner Schools decide to badly undermine its own FA in this way. Brockhill Park in Hythe has exacerbated the problem by expanding its own intake by 21 places to 256, while the rural Marsh Academy continues to recruit well with 177 offers for its 180 places. It is likely that some families from the Marsh, drawn to Brockhill in the past, can no longer access it, because of the flow from Folkestone.

Gravesham

All six schools are full, with Meopham not only increasing its PAN by 30 places, but still being the eighth most oversubscribed school in Kent. All this before its recent Outstanding Ofsted. It is just one of three Gravesham schools in my table above of the most oversubscribed schools in the county, headed up by St George's CofE (although it reduced its intake by 30 from 2018), and also St John's Catholic Comprehensive. KCC is investigating possible sites for a new secondary school in the next few years. Children from across the Borough offered LAA places at Ebbsfleet Academy, including a number from Shorne on the Medway border.

Maidstone

No vacancies in any of the seven schools with Valley Park, run by the assertive Valley Invicta Academy Trust (VIAT) being the.fourth most oversubscribed school in the county, with 431 first preferences for its 270 places. This is in spite of an additional 70 places being added for 2019. Two schools, Cornwallis Academy andNew Line Learning Academy, had 129 LAAs between them, and will be the big losers after grammar school appeals. They are run by the struggling Future Schools Academy Trust which was planned to be merged with (taken over by) the Every Child, Every Day Academy Trust back in September, although this does not appear to have happened yet. Cornwallis, the most oversubscribed school in Maidstone when I began my appeal business appears to have been run into the ground by its leaders. Its completely new premises were recently described to me as ‘huge, plazas instead of classrooms and fish bowl science labs. Not a good learning environment for easily distracted children’. In 2018, the four Maidstone grammars had 194 appeals upheld, no more than ten at Maidstone Grammar from pupils who were already grammar qualified. There will therefore be a ripple effect as those appeals take place with the stronger schools replacing losses from those further down the chain.

The remaining four schools are all oversubscribed, with Lenham School, which had been failing for years under KCC control with large numbers of vacancies year on year, having been taken over by VIAT. One consequence has been a 19% loss of pupils from the current Year 11 over the last four years, the largest fall in the county.

A new Free School, the Maidstone School of Science & Technology, also to be run by VIAT, is to open in 2020 to meet the pressures caused by major housing developments in the town . This follows years of delay because of planning objections on traffic grounds, as it is situated on a right angled bend in a narrow road adjacent to Valley Park and Invicta Grammar schools. This will see over 3,000 pupils converging on the spot when it is up and running. Uniquely, the new school is to be supported by a private school in Asia, the School of Science and Technology, Singapore. Even with the growth in the town, the 180 pupil intake will cause enormous damage to the numbers going to Cornwallis and NLL.

Sevenoaks

Three schools, but no vacancies. Trinity Free School has really established itself, with 257 first choices for its 180 places. Knole Academy is full even after adding 30 places, by virtue of offering 62 places to Bromley children, a number of whom usually find local preferred schools before September. It has had a difficult few years, being run by the highest paid headteacher in Kent, but she retired at Christmas, leaving the new head a job to do, but presumably on a far lower salary.

Orchards Academy in Swanley continues to be popular, also thriving on the closure of Oasis Hextable a few years ago, offering places to all its 110 first choices, offering another fifteen places on top of the agreed 135 at the last moment, all LAAs, presumably to ease the pressure on nearby Dartford.